


rivers 'til i reach you

by Springsteen



Series: open all night [3]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 12:03:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7360696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Springsteen/pseuds/Springsteen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shitty's looking for a reason to get away from Harvard for a while; Lardo wants to make every second of senior year as 'swawesome as possible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	rivers 'til i reach you

**Author's Note:**

> title from "rivers and roads" by the head and the heart; originally posted on tumblr.

“I have to get outta this fuckin’ city, Lards,” Shitty said. Lardo kicked the door to her room closed and shrugged the phone closer to her ear. “People here are the worst. Yesterday some asshole in a hummer tried to run me off the road, and then he leans out the window and yells, ‘Get on the sidewalk dumbass!’ Like it’s okay for a cyclist to run over a crowd of pedestrians, because no one knows how to share the road.” Shitty sucked in a breath, clearly just gearing up for a rant. “Everyone at this stupid school is such a Warner, it’s a literal toolshed.”

Lardo snorted. “Does that make you Elle Woods?”

“I’d carry around a tiny dog in a bag if I didn’t think it would traumatize the dog,” he said. “Is it too soon to come visit?”

“Actually,” Lardo said, “I have an idea.”

“Brah, you’re welcome to come up here,” Shitty said, “but I haven’t found one single cool place in this city, so only come visit right now if you wanna smoke in my apartment.”

“That’s not a bad idea, but that’s not what I was thinking.” Lardo sat on her bed and curled her feet under her. It was ridiculous and sentimental and she mentally prepared herself to be chirped into the next century. Shitty was her best friend, but he could be a real asshole. “I’ve been making a list of things I wanna do before I graduate.”

“Oh I like where this is going,” Shitty said. “Keep talking.”

“So I found this waterfall,” she said. “It’s like, practically in New York, but it looks pretty sweet.”

“You want to drive hours away as part of making senior year memories at Samwell?”

“Yeah,” Lardo said. “Why the fuck not? It’s in Massachusetts, Samwell is in Massachusetts. I have no idea where I’m going after graduation, so I might as well see the sights while I’m here.”

Shitty was quiet for a few seconds. This was exactly why she hadn’t told Ransom and Holster: her list wasn’t really a normal college bucket list. She wanted to drive all over New England, wanted to break onto the roof of any academic building to paint the sunrise, wanted to make the most of her time at Samwell before she had to go out into the real world.

“I’ll pick you up on Saturday morning,” Shitty said. “You’re buying snacks. Or, wait, sneak me some of Bitty’s pie.”

* * *

Early Saturday morning, Lardo dropped into the passenger seat of Shitty’s station wagon, dropping her bag in the backseat. “No pie, but there are cookies.”

“No pie?” Shitty asked. “What happened to Bits?”

“He’s fine,” Lardo said. “He’s been kinda busy, is all. Let’s roll.” Lardo knew she was being selfish, asking Shitty to come down to Samwell only to insist he leave again, but Shitty was smiling bright and happy, drumming his hands on the steering wheel along to the radio and telling Lardo about his classes.

“Literally nothing like _How To Get Away With Murder_ ,” he said. “Which is probably good, because I’m pretty sure I can’t get away with murder. I mean like, I’m trying to make a career out of people not getting away with it. If it weren’t for those meddling kids.”

“And their dumb dog, too,” Lardo added. She rolled down the window, letting her wrist hang out in the autumn breeze. She looked over at Shitty. He’s wearing the mirrored aviators he’s had for years, his hair shaggy but not as long as it was. He talked and talked, and Lardo listened. They talked on the phone, but it wasn’t the same as being next to each other, watching Shitty gesture with one hand and leave the other on the steering wheel. Samwell felt like another universe without him, and Jack. She would walk through the Haus and expect to see them, feel jolted and lost every time she remembered she wouldn’t find them in the kitchen or the reading room or the backyard. It was so good just to be around Shitty again. Lardo leaned back in the seat and scanned through radio stations so she wouldn’t be tempted to hold Shitty’s hand where it rested on the gearshift.

When Lardo had first started as team manager, she laid out a few rules for herself that she thought were for the best. She needed the guys to respect her, even as a tiny freshman, so she steeled herself and glossed over her emotions. She decided she would be calm and strong, because all these boys were loud and scattered and raucous. And she decided, on her first day with the team, that she couldn’t fall for any of them. She didn’t expect to, either, and definitely didn’t expect to get so close to Shitty. She knew Shitty would leave, knew things between them were temporary, and so she clung to their friendship while she had it. Losing what they had would destroy her, and she had to be strong for the whole team. 

“So where’s the water?” Shitty asked, looking out at the parking lot. “Can’t even hear it.”

“Come on,” Lardo said, getting out of the car and pulling her backpack over her shoulders. “There’s more to this road trip than sitting in your dumb car.” Shitty scrambled after her, let her lead the way out of the parking lot and onto the hiking trail that would lead them to the waterfall. 

“What else is on this wild list of yours?” Shitty asked. Lardo glanced over her shoulder and laughed. Shitty was walking with his arms outstretched, hands brushing along tree branches trying to keep his balance. He looked like the way she felt on ice skates. “Brah, I was not expecting a serious trip through the woods today. This is like, the least Harvard place ever, though. Fuckin’ beaut, and we’re not even there yet.”

“It’s all about the journey,” she said, avoiding his other question. 

“Fuck yeah it is,” he said, successfully distracted. His hands landed on Lardo’s shoulders, letting her steer him down the trail. When they got to the waterfall, she stopped to take it in. She closed her eyes and listened to the continuous crash of water, felt Shitty’s hands still on her shoulders, felt him take another step closer to lean down next to her. “What a fuckin’ beaut,” he said, right in her ear. She turned to look at him, his face only inches from hers. He was still looking at the waterfall, but when he felt her turn to look at him he turned his face to her, smiling. His thumb brushed across her shoulders, feather-light, and she shrugged out of his grip.   
“Come on,” she said. “I’ve got a plan.” She walked down the stone stairs to the rocks lining the pool at the base of the waterfall. She wove through other hikers, picking her way across the rocks until she was at the edge of the pool.

“Brah, are you going in there?” Shitty asked, incredulous. It was a warm day for September, but it was still chilly. Shitty followed her slowly. Amazingly, he was more balanced and graceful on skates than he was on dry land, and he seemed hyperaware of the potential to lose his footing and go sliding into the water. “How did you get there so fast?”

“I’m shorter, I’m less afraid of falling.” She sat down on the rock and let her backpack rest at her side. Digging through it, she pulled out a thick sketchpad, a thin paintbrush, and a palette of watercolors. By the time Shitty reached her, she’d filled up a small cup with water, dipper her brush in it, and started to paint.  
“Motherfucking shit,” Shitty said reverently, looking down at Lardo. “I love you.” Lardo’s fingers twitched around her paintbrush. She’d heard Shitty say the same words to her dozens of times, when she came home with greasy fast food once in a while, when she’d run her fingers through his hair, every time they got high together, but there was something different about his voice this time. Something in the way he was staring at her, half-scared and disbelieving. Slowly, he backed away. “I’ll uh, fuck. Shit. I’ll be right back. I promise I’m not fuckin’ ditching you.” He scrambled up the rocks, back to the path. Lardo watched him then blew out a long breath and did what she did best, letting her emotions come through the paint.

Her first painting was a vicious swirl of reds, long streaky drips of color across the page. She tore it out of the book, weighed down the corners with small rocks, and stared at the waterfall in front of her. She painted that - or at least, an abstract representation of it and the way it made her feel. She was nearly done when she heard Shitty’s voice behind her.

“I meant it,” he said. Slowly, he bent over and eased himself down to sit next to Lardo. He held a bunch of dandelions in his hand. As he talked, he knotted them into a crown. “You’re hilarious, and beautiful, and so fuckin’ talented it’s unbelievable. You take no bullshit and you’ve kept our asses in line for four years and it’s less than an hour to Boston but it feels like it’s the other side of the goddamn world. And it’s terrible, to be so far away from you.” He ran out of flowers and looked up at Lardo. “I get it if you just want to be friends. Or if you never want to talk to me again - I mean, that would be really fuckin’ terrible for me but I would respect the hell out of your feelings, here. And I’m not, like, trying to pressure you into literally anything. I just needed to tell you.”

Lardo felt like she had just jumped from the top of the waterfall, free-falling headfirst towards the water. Carefully, she set down her painting and brush. She took the flower crown out of Shitty’s hands and leaned closer to him to set it on his head. Then she leaned even closer and kissed him. 

Shitty reacted immediately, running one hand gently over the the buzzed part of Lardo’s hair and pressing the other against her waist. Lardo’s fingers were digging into Shitty’s shoulders, pulling him closer. She had wanted this for so long, had been ignoring it for so long, that now she ignored the voice in her head listing everything that could possibly go wrong. Gently, she pushed Shitty away, hands still on his shoulders.

“Listen,” she said. “This isn’t going to be perfect. Actually, it’s probably going to be kind of awful.” Shitty looked like she’d just checked him into the boards. “It could be fuckin’ amazing, though, too. Definitely worth it.”

Shitty smiled again, pulling Lardo into a hug. “I’m gonna come down to Samwell whenever I can.” He kissed her temple. “Gonna text you every fuckin’ day.” He kissed the top of her head. “I’ll tell you every dumbass thing about my day.” He kissed her forehead. “Only if you want me to, though.”

Lardo rolled her eyes and kissed him again, his mustache tickling her lip. “Of course I want you to, you big goof.” She turned so that they were both looking out at the waterfall, his arm around her waist and her head on his shoulder. Lardo’s senior bucket list was really about making memories, and it was off to a pretty perfect start.


End file.
